Bloom, the recently started theme for my new group of stitchers (
Brunel Broderers) has been giving me much to think about. It has been good to be prompted to think afresh and in a different direction. I have had many thoughts in mind but, sadly, I've had little chance to do anything except think. My much used PC with all its software and thousands of photographs was completely inaccessible for nearly 6 weeks due to a major malfunction (which also explains my recent blogging silence).
However, I am now back and able to access everything (what a relief!). I spent this afternoon reminding myself of where I was going and what I was thinking about before the cut off and re-exploring all the many photos of gardens and flowers that I took in August and September with
Bloom in mind. I am now relieved to be able to work on them all.
So far, I’ve been attracted most to sunflowers - their strong colour (I do do colour!), their shape and structure and, above all, their sheer size. I began simply by overlaying images of two sunflower heads on top of one another, playing with the juxtaposition of the images and their relationship to one another.
I then used layer and crop or layer and cut again to isolate small sections of four slightly different images. I selected parts of the images and overlaid layers shapes one on another and altered colour and opacity. There is much to play with as can be seen here.
It always interests me to see how changing the colour in one element can so alter the whole effect.
And how changing the focus to a different shape can seem so different.
Whilst some thought when beginning to develop new work is not a bad thing, for me there is always a strong urge to get on with things. This business has taught me two things. First of all, just how much my processis tied up with my photos and my ability to work on them. Secondly, how important it is to backup to an external drive so files can be accessed from elsewhere!
j'adore le jeux de couleur avec les tournesol...
ReplyDeleteMerci Elfi. Je voulais changer après tant de noir et blanc ...
DeleteYour pictures look gorgeous. Yes, you have just prompted me to backup! xx
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lin. Many more sunflower explorations to come,
DeleteLower left one in the first grouping of four - I see a bird sneaking in. The last ones are becoming abstractions. Totally fascinating this process. I went through a similar time of panic and assessment when I couldn't access my external back-up drive where I keep all my reference photos, a practice started when I still had an old computer with limited memory so the external drive gave me more capacity for saving all those photos and larger files. It turned out that I only needed to replace the power cord, but while I researched to try to find a solution, I had to deal with the emotions involved with the possibility that I had lost all those photos, and other things too. I'm not a fan of "the cloud" so not sure what the ultimate safety answer is for me the way I work with my files. Finger crossing, I guess. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about the bird. He’s in the bottom left as well!
DeleteThinking of computer storage, I’ve been using a 2 terabyte external hard drive for a while - though not often enough! Since this problem, it’s now plugged into my PC permanently and under instructions to backup weekly. I also backup photos taken on my phone to iCloud .... we all live and learn ...
Really interesting experiments. fascinated to see how your ideas develop!
ReplyDeleteThank you Louise. I now need time to develop the ideas further. They’re not stitchable yet and I want to break out of the rigid square format. It’s too restricting and doesn’t give the sense of vigorous growth I’m after ... but I’m having fun!
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